This morning I was walking to Church while praying a rosary, as I am wont to do. As I was praying the 5th joyful mystery, the finding of Jesus in the temple, I realized that many of us have fallen into a mindset that has stripped us of a great deal of joy in our lives. That mindset is partly a result of secularism/modernism, and maybe even part of the Protestant reformations lacking sacramental theology. It’s slowly crept its way into the Catholic world, and I was struck by just how sad it made me.
Jesus is present everywhere. That much is true. I’ve heard it said by prominent Catholic theologians that the same Jesus that is in the Eucharist is present in each person we meet, in the revelation of nature, and so forth. While that’s all technically true, it tends to pull people into the mindset of “I can worship anywhere, why go to Church?” After all, if Jesus is just as present in the forest or at a concert as He is at Mass, then why bother? There are times I’d much rather be sitting on the beach with a drink in my hand than kneeling on the hard floor.
The thing is, yes, Jesus is present to all of creation. There is a key to our Catholic faith that we find in the Our Father prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread.” That translation is the most common English one, but it’s lacking. Its depth doesn’t do it justice. We only find the word translated as “daily bread” in the Lor’ds Prayer. It’s almost as if the disciples had to come up with a unique word for it. The word is Epiousios, and it means more than just daily. It means supersubstantial. He is the bread that has more than just substance and more than just sustenance. He who sustains our being on all levels. The Eucharist.
What does that have to do with the 5th Joyful Mystery of the Rosary? Everything. When our daughter was little, we were shopping at Kohl’s department store. One of our younger girls wanted to take her with her to look at clothes. They were going to be close, so we said sure. A few minutes later, she walked up without Moira. It took us nearly 20 minutes to find her with the help of the store. She was under a clothes rack just chilling. The relief at seeing her was immense. The joy of finding our lost child, overwhelming. The grief and fear washed away to love, joy, happiness. I imagine that is how Mary felt when she lost her Son in this mass crowd of family. Assuming He was with someone else, a cousin, or such, they spent a full day traveling before realizing He was gone. It was three days (reminds you of the tomb, eh?) before they found Him again. How much relief must they have felt?
I think in today’s world, it’s more pertinent than ever for us to look for Him in the tabernacle. When we look around at our world full of the culture of death, the political turmoil, the unrest in the streets, the racial violence, and the sheer violence and hatred… it’s hard to see Jesus even though we know He is there. The one thing we do know is that we can find Him, just as Mary and Joseph did, in His Father’s house. How much should our faces light up and relief fill our souls see Him at Mass? To receive Him again and again in the Sacraments, to know with certainty that we are receiving the Supersubstantial bread that will nourish us for eternity?